Maj. Squadron: P-38L
Lightning
Welcome to the Maj. Squadron Series of Geocaches.
I needed a theme for this series of geocaches and being a fan of
WW2 era aircraft I decided to settle on the names of some of my
favorite fighters and bombers to hold the title of the geocaches in
this series.
Every cache in the "Maj. Squadron" series is a stand alone,
traditional geocache with the exception of the final cache:
"Maj. Squadron: B-17G Flying Fortress". The coordinates of
that cache are unpublished and in order to find that 7th and
final geocache you will have to first find the other 6 geocaches in
the series as each cache container holds part of the coordinates
for the final cache.
There is a decent amount of quality swag located within the
final container (an ammo can). The First To
Find will have his/her choice of goodies to choose from but
as an intended FTF prize I have provided an 1882 S Morgan
Silver Dollar in about XF condition.
There is traditional geocache and hiking items such as
compasses, LED flashlights, carabiners, hydration pack bite valves
and other miscellaneous bits to rummage through in all the caches
in this series.
About this cache: The container
is a little smaller than an ammo can but it is larger than the
"small" containers in this series. Really easy find.
Congratulations to riledwino for the
First To Find
The geocaches in the series:
"Maj. Squadron: P-51D Mustang"GC2NFER
"Maj. Squadron - P-38L Lightning"
GC2NFDR
"Maj. Squadron - P-47D Thunderbolt"
GC2NFFJ
"Maj. Squadron - F6F-5 Hellcat"GC2NFCA
"Maj. Squadron - F4U-4 Corsair"GC2NFBV
"Maj. Squadron - P40E Warhawk"
GC2NFCJ
"Maj. Squadron - B-17G Flying Fortress" (Final Cache)
GC2NF45
Have fun.
S! Maj.
The P-38L Lightning:
The Lightning gained fame in the hands of Army Major Richard I.
Bong, whose 40 aerial victories were scored in the P-38, making him
the highest-scoring American ace of the war.
The P-38 was originally conceived as an advanced,
high-performance twin-engine interceptor. On Feb. 11, 1939, Lt. Ben
Kelsey set a coast to coast record of 7 hours, 48 minutes in the
sleek prototype Lightning, but crashed while landing. Despite the
accident, development continued and the first of 13 service test
YP-38s flew on Sept. 16, 1940.
The first major production version was the P-38E, which had a
20mm cannon rather than the earlier 37mm cannon. Production of the
E began in September 1941 and 210 were built. The next version, the
P-38F, introduced pylon racks that could carry either bombs or
droppable fuel tanks, greatly extending its range. Production of
the G began in August 1942, followed by the P-38H in May 1943,
which had a more powerful version of the Allison V-1710 engine.
The versatile Lightning performed many different missions during
World War II, including dive bombing, level bombing, bombing
through clouds, strafing, photo reconnaissance and long range
escort. It first went into large-scale service during the North
African campaign in November 1942, where the German pilots named it
Der Gabelschwanz Teufel ("The Forked-Tail Devil"). When the
Lightning began combat operations from England in September 1943,
it was the only fighter with the range to escort bombers into
Germany.
The Lightning truly shined in the Pacific theater; seven of the
top eight scoring USAAF aces in the Pacific flew the P-38. On April
18, 1943, the long range of the P-38 enabled USAAF pilots to ambush
and shoot down an aircraft carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who
was the planner of the Pearl Harbor raid and the commander of the
Imperial Japanese Navy. The P-38 became the standard USAAF fighter
in the Pacific theater until the closing months of WWII.
The final production version was the P-38L, which could carry two
300-gallon drop tanks. Deliveries of the L began in June 1944 and
continued until August 1945. Of the 10,038 P-38s built, 3,923 were
P-38Ls.
TECHNICAL NOTES:
Armament: Four .50-cal. machine guns and one 20mm
cannon
Engines: Two Allison V-1710s of 1,475 hp each
Maximum speed: 414 mph
Cruising speed: 275 mph
Range: 1,300 miles
Ceiling: 40,000 ft.
Span: 52 ft.
Length: 37 ft. 10 in.
Height: 12 ft. 10 in.
Weight: 17,500 lbs. loaded